Polish PM slams NATO 'free riders'

BERLIN, Feb 15 (AFP): Poland's right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested Thursday, on the eve of a visit to Berlin, that Germany is a NATO "free rider" that spends too little on collective defence.

Without naming Germany itself, Morawiecki criticised alliance members that spend less on defence than the targeted two per cent of GDP repeatedly insisted upon by US President Donald Trump.

A country that benefits from NATO's collective defence but spends just one per cent of GDP, Morawiecki told Germany's Die Welt daily, is "a free rider which threatens the unity of the West".

Germany's military spending amounts to 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product.

Morawiecki also charged that "Europe isn't taking defence seriously and living under the umbrella of Pax Americana," according to the German-language article.

"But for Europe, too, the saying goes: If you want peace, prepare for war."

He also voiced disbelief that many Germans trust Russian President Vladimir Putin more than Trump, exclaiming that it made him think "run while you can! It's an upside down world."